


sway with me

by wlfhrd



Category: IT (Movies - Muschietti)
Genre: Aged-Up Character(s), Alternate Universe - High School, Alternate Universe - No Pennywise (IT), M/M, Mutual Pining, Slow Burn, no beta we die like men
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-01-22
Updated: 2020-01-22
Packaged: 2021-02-27 09:42:06
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,097
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22355056
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/wlfhrd/pseuds/wlfhrd
Summary: awkward teenager Eddie moves to the (in)famous West Coast and gets more than he bargained for.
Relationships: Eddie Kaspbrak/Richie Tozier
Comments: 2
Kudos: 10





	sway with me

**Author's Note:**

> here's the AU i started writing as a way to procrastinate, hope you enjoy!
> 
> this chapter is part 1 of the prologue

Despite all the nights he had spent awake overthinking about this moment, the realization of what was about to happen only hit when Eddie sat on his assigned place on the airplane, next to the window, and saw Saint Louis become a tangle of concrete and moving cars, until it disappeared under the clouds.

Sonia shook his arm, as a silent warn to pay attention to the instructions the flights attendant were giving. What to do in case of an emergency, where are the emergency exits located and other stuff he listened very carefully, but hoped to never have to use. As soon as it ended, he had to hear the exact same speech he heard about a dozen times that week, about how safe airplanes surprisingly are, how, statistically, it would be easier for them to die in a car accident than in a flight, and that he should not be afraid.

It’s not like he was a hundred percent calm about flying, which was something he didn’t do that often, but the thing that really made him shiver was what would come after the ride, in approximately six hours.

Aside from what he had seen in movies, he had no idea of how West Coast was really like, what to expect from its people, specially kids at school. It wasn’t like when they moved because his father got sick, going from one town to another in a rush, knowing he would’ve to spent a large amount of time in hospitals and then taking care of his mourning mother. With no time nor emotional availability to make friends, therefore a loner, and seemingly frail for his small body frame, he became the favorite target for bullies.

_ The good thing is i won’t miss anyone. _ _ The bad thing is i don’t have anyone to miss anyway.  _ He thought, his eyes involuntarily started to water, pushing him to cry,  but that couldn’t happen when he was sitting right next to his mother, so he decide to think about what was about to come. How, this time, he had a chance to present himself as a cool person and make friends, at least someone to walk with in the school, didn’t mean he wanted a clique. It also meant the last chance to have a slice of teenagehood to reminisce when he gets older, because he had nothing nostalgic yet, only disposable, hurtful memories.

He closed his eyes and imagined himself, at school, with two boys just like him, laughing about something. The scene started to get hazy in his mind, so he opened his eyes and looked at the clouds, so fluffy and white, like a big pillow, how cozy they looked. And with that thought, he fell deeply asleep.

When he woke up, a few minutes away of the end of the flight, he felt so groggy and that goddamn awful sensation took ages to go away, so he can only remember dragging his body, heavy like dead weight, following Sonia while she talked to people in different places around town. Get the car, the keys, furniture and a few groceries to get through the weekend took, as Eddie estimated afterwards, three hours, partly due to the painfully slow traffic.

And, although Sonia studied the streets and directions weeks in advance, Eddie was given the duty to guide her around, following a big paper map, neatly folded and with all the places they had to go pinned. Between one instruction and another (again, the traffic is terrible), he looked at the landscape outside and enjoyed the beautiful view. He saw a lot of palm trees, people dressed in weird clothes and short buildings, a collection of things he already expected, until, gradually, the buildings and billboards started to fade and gave place to houses, small ones, and the traffic starts to flow better. This is the moment he knew how close to home he was, almost in the core of suburbia.

When the car turned around a school, a concrete park appeared. It was completely full of teenagers, sliding over ramps and moving around either on skates or bicycles.

“Look at this, they are gathered here looking for trouble” Sonia said harshly, he saw this coming, she could never see something wrong and not point out. “smoking, drinking, drugging themselves. And, once you break a bone, because that’s what happens to those little punks, it’s never the same again”

“Yes, it’s pointless” Eddie winced at the sight of a girl, seemingly the same age as him, smoking “Why smoke and give yourself cancer when you can stay far away from it? Why do dangerous moves on top of a board without protective gear? I can't get it”

“This is why i am so proud of you, Eddie, i know you would never do something like that!” His heart warmed when she said it, he couldn’t help but feel good to make his mom smile.

“Now turn left again” he blurted out before it was too late to turn. He glanced looks at the pinned point in the map, confirming how close they were. “and then right, the map says the house is in about two blocks, do you remember the exact number?”

“1214, to your side” She answered and slowed the car down, so Eddie could promptly start looking out the number on every house of the street.

“Here!” he yelled excitedly.

As soon as she parked, Eddie unfastened the car belt and jolted out. He took a few seconds to analyse the way the house looks. The overall verdict is cute and just enough to live comfortably, not large neither cramped. The walls are painted in blue and the roof has a dark tiles and a triangular shape. In the front, a tiny garden mowed so recently he could smell the grass, with a rock path leading to what’s supposed to be the porch. A white picket fence surrounding the whole lot, which looks nice but does nothing to the house safety. The thing that bothers him the most is, although the front windows and door are made of the exact same material and painted the same color, they are painfully asymmetrical, the door is not centered, the right window is too far, the left window is almost on the place the door was supposed to be.

Sonia passed him by, one hand holding her purse and the other inside of it, trying to find the keys they just picked at the real estate. They stood a few minutes in the tiny front porch, Eddie growing impatient by the second, watched as she tried every single key in the three keyholes keeping the door locked. When they finally enter, a strong smell of chemicals, that seems to be a mix of cleaning products and insecticide, invaded his senses. His hands, in reflex, instantly go to his face, to wipe the tears coming off forceful of his irritated eyes.

“Don’t worry, honey, we just have to open the windows and the smell of paint will be gone very soon” she said and jolted towards the living room window.

Even though there was a faint smell of paint in the mix, Eddie knew it wasn’t only paint, she must have thought he’s very naïve and unaware of her conversations with the real estate agent, to whom she yelled about cleaning, fumigating, exterminating every trace of life from the house before she got here. He decided to pretend to believe it’s paint and not argue.

“Mom, can i eat something?” He asked. After hours hungry, the only thing he could think about was the growl his stomach was making.

“Yes, i bought some snacks, they are in the car. Don’t forget to wash your hands before you eat, i bought soap as well” She said and left the room to open the other windows of the house.

It takes three trips to bring everything. First, he grabbed the bags of groceries and dropped them on top of the kitchen counter, after, he split the four suitcases in half, to bear with their weight, and left them on a corner of the living room.

He headed to the kitchen, looked for the soap in the bags, washed his hands, and only then, devoured a whole package of chocolate chip cookies, standing in front of the sink, careful to not spill crumbles in the impeccable clean floor of the kitchen, because all of their plates, cutlery, appliances and pretty much everything they owned but couldn’t bring on a plane were on a truck, a more affordable option.

By the time he was finished eating, one of the two delivery trucks they were expecting parked right in front of the house, next to their car. Three big guys in navy jumpsuits got out of it. Eddie peeked through the front door to observe as his mother talked to them, and promptly stood on the kitchen door to make way when the men started putting the furniture out of the truck and bringing it inside.

He was so distracted with the movement inside, that he didn’t notice when his mother parked the car inside of the garage, and another truck, much smaller, park where their car was, so he was startled by two other men, not uniformized and carrying piles of boxes, who suddenly appeared in the living room.

“Can i help them?” He asked.

“No, Eddie, you know you can’t carry these heavy stuff, you could even hurt yourself, so let them do it”. He already expected this answer from her, but still felt very useless and weird watching from the corner, only dodging everyone and not helping. Besides that, he also felt a bit of jealousy, because wasn’t built like them, with big arms, full of strength and exuding masculinity, and he certainly could not carry a whole couch or more than two big boxes at once, like he saw the men doing. And not only jealousy. A strange feeling crept through his body, something that he could not admit, not even to himself, it made his cheeks burn in shame.

“I need to take a shower, i’m disgusting” he waited until she finished giving instructions to the pair carrying one of the beds to ask.

“Go get your clothes, i’ll find the bathroom stuff”.

And he went, grateful for his organization skills that made him separate a change of clothes on top of everything is his bag, so he didn’t have to make any effort to find them.

“Everything is clean, i checked” Sonia reassured the boy as he entered the bathroom “here’s your towel”

The pleasure of the relief of taking off the sticky clothes he’s been wearing all day is better than any orgasm or drug effect, Eddie decides. The lukewarm water running down his back, the thick layer of sweat and dirt circling down the drain and sweet scent of the antibacterial soap are inebriating, he wished to stay there forever. Eventually, he got out and dressed himself, while mindlessly humming to some tune.

The silence and emptiness almost feel strange to him, after an hour surrounded by very loud people who didn’t stop moving around filling every corner of the house. Sonia stood in the kitchen, back turned to the door, chopping up some tomatoes.

“Sit down, baby, i’m almost done” Eddie obeyed, pulling one of the chairs, and sat there in silence, staring down at the empty plate in front of him.

She put a big plate with a few sandwiches on the table, and instead of sitting down, picked up a glass filled with water, put down next to Eddie’s plate.

“Don’t forget your meds, sweetie” She said and slid two small white bottle of pills to him, the night ones. “Sorry i couldn’t make a decent meal tonight”

“It’s alright, i like sandwiches”

They eat quietly in a table half the size of their last one. He felt so tired it affected his appetite, so he ate as fast as he could and got up.

“Leave it on the sink, i’ll take care of it. I made your bed, rest now, tomorrow we have all of this things to put in place”

He walked back to the table, took the two pills with the water she had served. Then he leaned forward and deposited a kiss on her slightly sweaty forehead.

“Goodnight, mommy”.

A knock on the door and a sudden light on his face are enough to wake Eddie up. The lack of recognition of the place he slept in, made him panic for solid five seconds, until he sat on the bed, facing the door, and saw his own mother peering through the door.

“Good morning” the words came out of his mouth slow, in a raspy tone.

He got up on his feet, opened the wide window of his room, it faced the small backyard, a beautiful vision to wake up to, and the light that came through it almost let him blinded.

It was hard to contain a surprised choke when he lifted the sheets and saw a large damp spot where he just slept. Suddenly, he became aware of his pajamas sticking to his back, dripping in sweat, and sprinted towards his bag, gathering his shortest shorts and a white t-shirt so thin that was almost see-through.

After a cold shower, he walks into the kitchen, feeling fresh. A cup of orange juice, two toasts and two bottles of pills waited for him on the the table.

“Good morning, Eddie” His mother entered the room with a box in her arms “How did you sleep?”

“Like a baby, because i was tired. But when i woke up my bed was extremely wet, damp with sweat, the most disgusting thing i’ve ever seen. And the fan was on full speed the whole night”

“The weather here is like this, i’m sorry, baby, but we gotta get used to it”

“Couldn't they have relocated you to anywhere else?” Now he was blaming the insurance company his mother worked, after all, it was them who decided to bring her here. Hell disguised of a beautiful promotion.

“No, look, i don’t like here either, too hot, too many people, too dangerous, but i had no other choice. Luckily, in about three years we’re leaving.”

Eddie didn’t want to think about the future this early in the morning, God knows what he will be doing after high school.

“Do you need help?” he pointed to the box she had brought into the kitchen before and volunteers.

“No, i’ll be fine, find your stuff and organize your room” He turned to do that, eager to hear some songs in his discman “I’ll call you when lunch is ready”

Thankfully, all of the boxes were very well identified with their destined room, so it wasn’t that hard to find the ones with EDDIE written with sharpie on the side. He dropped the box in the wooden floor of his room and took a good look around, the sunlight made the orange wallpaper appear to be even brighter, but it still looked lifeless, almost uncomfortable for him. He analyzed where everything should be, visualizing how to recreate his last room here, to feel more at home.

Sat down like that, ready to put things in order, he can’t help but remember the past three weeks, when he and Sonia sat down and packed every single item on the house, in the most organized and protectful way possible. The first box he decided to open was, of course, the one with his discman, carefully tucked into layers of bubble wrap, on top of everything else. One of the few things that made him feel like a teenager was music, and listen to music was almost a guilty pleasure, because his mom always got so upset with it, threatened to throw his CDs alway a dozen of times, so he had to listen to music exclusively with headphones on, what could lead him to deafness. He opened eagerly, to check if the CD he made specially for this moment, a mix of his favorite upbeat tunes, is still in there. He put on the phones, turned on the music in a adequate volume. The opening track, as he remembers, is Alright, to set the mood.

He decided to start putting his books on the shelf, ordered A to Z of the authors’ names. When the bottom part was full, he passed to his collectable action figures, displaying them on the very top, and in the middle, he put his comic books, separated by hero, in different piles.

The feeling he got after, looking at his room, not so lifeless anymore, but getting shaped into his personality, is unexplainable. It gave motivation to open his bags and start putting all of his clothes into the closet. It’s a very simple process, pick the clothes, already organized very neatly inside the bag, put them on a hanger and put them on the closet. In a blink of an eye, all of his shirts are already inside of the closet, ordered by color, forming a good gradient. In the process of picking the jackets apart, to hang only those he thinks he’ll be wearing, not that many because of the goddamned California weather, and put the others away, he found himself dancing to a Talking Heads song, snapping his fingers, wiggling his shoulders, stepping along with the synth.

“Eddie!” His mother’s voice came out of nowhere, loud and shrill, the way she sounds when she’s mad “What are you doing with this thing in you ear? You’re going to be deaf”

“Actually, i’m listening at a moderate volume, so it can’t cause me any harm”

“That’s not true, i called you a thousand times and you didn’t listened because of this!” she gesticulated angrily at him. Before he can answer, she blurted out, fast, but in a more controlled tone “and last but not least, i already told you to not dance like this, you know exactly what you look like, Eddie. EIther you stop and act like a proper man or this will make the kids make fun of you”

“I’m sorry, mom, i’ll stop” The words barely made out of his mouth. It was not the first time she said that, actually, she was always policing the way he moved or talked, and every time she did it, hurt his heart a little.

“I need your help in the kitchen, come on”.

And he went, not so happy anymore.

  
  


**Author's Note:**

> ps: english is not my first language and this wasn't beta read at all, so if you found mistakes (there probably are a few of them) i'm very open to corrections/feedbacks/comments


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